VOICE ONE:
This is Shirley Griffith.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program,EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about the Indiana Dunes. These hills ofsand are not far from Chicago, Illinois. They rise on the shores ofLake Michigan, one of America’s Five Great Lakes.
((THEME))
VOICE ONE:
Millions of people visit the sand hills in the middle Westernstate of Indiana each year. The winds along Lake Michigan createdsome of these dunes in ancient times. Other dunes may be buildingright now. The winds create dunes when they drop loose sand ontoland. Some dunes look partly round. Others take the form of long,narrow hills.
Visitors from all over the world explore the Indiana dunes area.They swim and sail in the lake. They watch birds in the wetlands.They study plant life in the rich forests of oak trees and mapletrees.
The smooth sands of the dunes and lakeshore make a clear musicalsound when people walk on them. Some of these sounds can be heardten meters away. Visitors often say that the sand dunes “sing.”
VOICE TWO:
The Indiana state government and the federal government controlmore than six thousand hectares of land along the lake. They operateparks with visitors’ areas and scientific research stations.Supervision by these agencies guarantees that the land will alwaysbelong to the public. Laws protect the plants, animals, and naturaland historical points of interest.
During the twentieth century many people worked hard to save thedunes from development for industrial and port uses. This was noteasy. The land along that area of Lake Michigan is extremelyvaluable. Some of the land provides important lake ports. Industrieslike Bethlehem Steel, Midwest Steel and Indiana’s natural-gascompany also operate along the lake.
VOICE ONE:
In the early Nineteen-Fifties some companies were removing fivetons of sand each day from the dunes. Scientists of the IndianaGeological Survey investigated the sand supply inNineteen-Fifty-Two. They said the dunes had enough sand to continueremoving it at that rate for about fifty to one-hundred years.
The wind and waves of Lake Michigan created the dunes overfifteen-thousand years. Yet people could destroy the dunes in alifetime.
((BRIDGE MUSIC))
VOICE TWO:
The federal government established the National Park Service inNineteen-Sixteen. A Chicago businessman named Stephen T. Mather wasits first director. Mister Mather created many national parks. Hewanted the Indiana dunes to be a national park, too.
But the world was on the edge of a war. World War One began inNineteen-Seventeen. Congress was not thinking about creating parks.It was thinking about soldiers and military supplies.
Public support for a protected dunes park continued to grow,however. In Nineteen-Twenty-Three, Indiana passed a bill providingtax money to buy property along the lake from its private owners.Four years later the Indiana Dunes State Park opened. It containedmore than eight-hundred hectares of land.
VOICE ONE:
Area citizens, scientists and visitors were pleased with thestate park. But they did not feel satisfied. They wanted much moreland along the lake protected from being used for more factories andindustrial ports.
Activist Dorothy Buell led the campaign for a national park inthe dunes. The Save the Dunes Council was formed inNineteen-Fifty-Two.
The proposed park met opposition from Indiana congressionalrepresentatives. The congressmen said ports on the lake wouldprovide more jobs for local workers than a national park. Yet theSave the Dunes Council found a powerful friend in United StatesSenator Paul H. Douglas. He represented the nearby state ofIllinois.
Senator Douglas loved the dunes. Every year he would introduce abill to create an Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. But every yearthe bill failed to pass.
VOICE TWO:
In Nineteen-Sixty-Six, people who wanted more development finallyreached a compromise with people who wanted a national park.Congress first passed a bill to develop more ports. But then, italso created the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. More land wasadded to the park in later legislation. Today the six-thousandhectares of the federal Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore alsoinclude the Indiana Dunes State Park.
((BRIDGE MUSIC ))
VOICE ONE:
Many people have lived in the dunes. Scientists say the firstsettlers arrived twelve-thousand years ago. They hunted hugecreatures like the mastodon, which were similar to the modernelephant.
Centuries later native Americans used the dunes to travel betweenthe Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. Miami Indians andPotawatomi Indians harvested local plants for medicine and food.They trapped animals covered with fur in the wetlands and rivers.
VOICE TWO:
A modern federal road follows a walking path in the dunes calledthe Beach Trail. Once this trail was a path between two forts builtto provide protection against attacks by native Indian tribes. Theseforts became Chicago, Illinois, and Detroit, Michigan.
In Eighteen-Twenty-Two, a trader from the state of Michigansettled in the Indiana dunes. This man, Joseph Bailly, wanted totrade with the Potawatomi Indians. He opened a store and raised afamily near Lake Michigan. He exchanged warm blankets and guns forthe animal furs supplied by Indians and travelers.
At first, Mister Bailly and his family lived in a small woodhome. The trader was building a bigger house when he died. TheNational Park Service has repaired the outside of this large whitehome. Now the house looks as it did in Nineteen-Seventeen when thelast member of the Bailly family lived there.
VOICE ONE:
A student from the University of Chicago brought scientificknowledge to the dunes. Henry Chandler Cowles received money fromthe university to study landforms and plant fossils from the timewhen ice covered much of the world. In Eighteen Ninety-Six, MisterCowles decided the Indiana dunes would be an excellent place for hisresearch.
Mister Cowles’ research showed how plant communities could makeimportant changes in land. His work showed how groups of plantscould create conditions for a sand dune to become a living forest.
Mister Cowles became a well known professor and researcher. Hedid not invent the scientific study of how plants and animals relateto their environment. Yet the work of Henry Chandler Cowles in theIndiana Dunes helped spread the science of ecology throughout theworld.
VOICE TWO:
Other scientists have explained how the sand hills form. They saya huge thick river of ice helped create the Indiana dunes. Thousandsof years ago this glacier moved over what is now central Indiana. Asthe glacier moved, heavy ice crushed rocks into very small pieces.
Over time, part of the glacier became a body of water called LakeChicago, an early version of Lake Michigan. The melting glacierdropped the sand it had created around the lake.
The sands of the present-day Lake Michigan are always moving. Thewinds and waves of the lake carry sand to the surrounding land.Strong winds lift the sand when it lands on the shore. Then thewinds drop the sand on the land below. This process starts buildingnew dunes.
VOICE ONE:
Over time, plant life develops on these sand hills. For example,a tree called a cottonwood is usually first to grow on a new dune.Cottonwood trees being buried by sand grow roots along their trunks.The roots help hold the dune in place.
Sometimes a fire or another destructive event removes plant lifeor trees from a dune. Then the winds dig a hole in the sand. Thewinds use loose sand from the hole to create a large dune thatmoves. Such a dune can damage or destroy anything in its way. Onesuch dune has half-buried several summer homes near Lake Michigan.
VOICE TWO: A dune called Mount Baldy guards the northern end ofthe Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Beautiful trees encircle itslower parts. Thousands of people climb the thirty-eight meters tothe top of Mount Baldy each year. But getting there can bedifficult. Climbers discover that their footsteps up the tall hillof sand often cause them to fall back again.
Jessica Wolfard is a seventeen-year-old student from the Chicagoarea. Jessica climbed Mount Baldy last month. She said it was worththe effort. From the top she looked for a long time at thebright-blue lake, the sand and the green forests below.
VOICE ONE:
Irene Watson of Chicago is ninety years old. She is Jessica’sgreat-grandmother. Seventy years ago, Missus Watson also climbed inthe Indiana dunes. She says, “I am so glad the dunes have been savedfor my children and their children and all those to come. “
((THEME))
VOICE TWO:
This Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson andproduced by Keith Holmes. This is Steve Ember.
VOICE ONE:
And this is Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for anotherEXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America.